Tufting machines are used in the manufacture of various products. A tufting machine typically receives multiple yarns that are used by the tufting machine to create loops or tufts in a backing material. In many tufting machines, each of multiple adjacent needles uses a thread of yarn to tuft a row of tufts. Because many such needles may require different yarns simultaneously, many tufting machines require that multiple yarns be fed into or otherwise received by the tufting machine at relatively the same time.
Yarn is typically supplied directly to the tufting machine in one of two general ways. First, yarn may be supplied from a “creel,” which is a rack or series of racks holding large bobbins or cones from which yarn spools into the tufting machine. Yarn wound onto a cardboard or plastic cylindrical core or “bobbin” or a conical “cone” is referred to as a “yarn package.” Alternatively, yarn can be fed first onto a “beam,” a large horizontal mandrel onto which multiple strands of yarns are wound in advance. Such yarns can be supplied to the beam from a creel. The beam is then mounted adjacent to the tufting machine, and the yarn strands are unwound simultaneously from the beam into the tufting machine. To position the yarn strands on a beam, bobbins or other yarn packages must generally be positioned on creels to “feed” the beam, much as the yarn packages would be positioned to feed a tufting machine directly.
Initially, creels were arrays or systems of stationary yarn package holders spaced out adjacent to tufting machines. Such creels occupied large amounts of manufacturing facility floor space, and the tufting machine supplied with yarn from a particular creel had to be out of service while yarn was being loaded into, removed from or otherwise handled in the creel.
Generally, preparing and using creels to feed tufting machines and beams requires significant amounts of labor. First, a significant amount of labor is generally required to prepare each of the bobbins or other packages that are used in a creel. This is because, in many cases, yarn is provided by a yarn manufacturer in a manner that is not appropriate for use on a creel. For example, a carpet manufacturer's creels may be configured to use relatively small bobbins. Thus, in this scenario, the carpet manufacturer may take yarn from the typically large bobbins or packages provided by a yarn manufacturer and use that yarn to create smaller bobbins or packages that are usable on the carpet manufacturer's creels.
In addition, to prepare a creel for feeding a tufting machine or beam, significant time is often required to load properly the bobbins or packages onto the creel. Generally, each bobbin or package used on a creel must be individually positioned and its thread correctly positioned for use. For example, one technique for loading a creel may involve loading each bobbin or package into a particular yarn package holder on the creel. This loading can be complicated depending on the number of different colors and/or types of yarn that are used in the particular tufted product. Generally, a person loading such creels will have to spend time ensuring that bobbins or other packages are placed on appropriate holders so that the yarn on each holder will feed through the correct tube that leads to the correct header location.
In addition, once a bobbin is properly positioned on a holder, its yarn must generally be manually positioned or otherwise prepared for connection into the tufting machine. For example, for each bobbin or package, the loading process may require manually inserting the yarn end into a tube and using an air gun to blow the yarn through the tube until the yarn end projects from the other end of the tube, for example, through one or more headers. Once the yarn ends have been so positioned, they may then be attached to existing yarns already feeding into a tufting machine or onto a beam. In some processes, all of the yarn ends are positioned on a creel so that they extend through individual holes in a detachable header.
A detachable header can be used to facilitate connection of yarns into a tufting machine in a manner similar to or different from conventional techniques. For example, once yarns from the yarn holders on the creel are run through such a detachable header, the detachable header can be removed from the creel (along with the yarns that are running through it) and positioned on or adjacent to a tufting machine to facilitate attachment of the creel yarns to yarns that are already running into the tufting machine. In this manner, yarns from a creel are attached to the yarns already threaded into a tufting machine and, upon continuing use of the tufting machine, are used in forming the tufted products. A detachable header, in other words, can be used to provide a mechanism for aligning yarns for attachment (by fusing or otherwise connecting) to yarns already in a tufting machine.
On many creels, a detachable header is typically positioned and attached adjacent to a stationary header on the creel. Typically, when a yarn package is loaded onto the creel, its yarn is blown through a tube leading from the area of the yarn package to the stationary header, though a hole in the stationary header, and through an aligned hole in the detachable header that is adjacent thereto. This process is repeated until all yarns are through the detachable header, and then the creel yarns are then attached to the ends of yarns already threaded into the tufting machine as described above.
While using creels in this manner provides many benefits, it limits the efficient use of the creel since a given creel is subjected to significant down time (away from a tufting machine) for loading and unloading. Moreover, the process of loading yarn packages and sending yarns through tubes one at a time can be cumbersome and time consuming. Other techniques for loading a creel with yarn packages can be used, but all generally require a significant amount of labor.
In the manufacture of tufted products, significant labor may also be required to address issues presented by left over and excess yarn. Yarn is frequently left over on creels as a result of a tufting machine being reconfigured periodically to create different products, because a single tufting machine can be used to create multiple carpet products. For example, a tufting machine may first be configured to tuft 10,000 square yards of a first style in a first run, then reconfigured to tuft 800 square yards of a second style in a second run, then reconfigured again to tuft 1,200 square yards of a third style in a third run, etc. Switching between styles on a tufting machine may involve switching which yarns are fed into the tufting machine, among other things. Such switching of yarns can be accomplished in various ways.
Reconfiguration of a tufting machine may require significant labor to stock or recycle yarn left over on creels. Thus, for example, after a given tufting machine run is complete, new yarn must be loaded into a stationary creel or, if movable creels of the sort described below are in use, a new creel may be positioned adjacent to the tufting machine and the yarn ends from that creel may be fed into the tufting machine to begin the process of tufting a new run of a different style or color. Such reconfiguration is particularly common in make-to-order manufacturing processes but is also common in make-to-stock and other manufacturing processes. After a run is complete, the creel in use may have significant amounts of yarn remaining on its bobbins or yarn packages. In many cases, the various bobbins remaining on the creel will have differing amounts of left over yarn because of uneven use of yarn within the particular carpet style and/or uneven yarn amounts on the initial bobbins loaded onto the creel prior to the run. Extra yarn that is present after the run is completed may be unwound and then used to create new bobbins or yarn packages for future use, recycled, or used for another purpose. Such processes are generally very labor intensive.
Various improved creels have improved the efficiency and effectiveness of using yarn on tufting machines. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,634,585, 7,004,415, and 7,316,366 all entitled “Compact Creel,” and naming William O. Ingram III as inventor, and all incorporated herein in their entireties by this reference, describe various compact creel innovations that facilitate use of yarn with tufting machines, among other things. FIGS. 1-3 illustrate an exemplary highly mobile, compact creel 20 that utilizes a frame 22 for holding yarn packages 30. This compact creel 20 includes a frame 22 having a front portion 24 and a rear portion 26, multiple hollow supports 28 attached directly to the frame 22 for holding yarn packages 30, and an attachable header 32. Casters 34, 36, 38, 40, 42 and 44 on the bottom of the frame 22 provide for ease of movement of the compact creel 20. During setup of the creel 20, an end of a strand of yarn 33 is unwrapped from the yarn package 30. The yarn 33 is blown through the flexible tubing 50 up to the header 32. The flexible tubing 50 runs behind the frame 22 and traverses up to the header 32. The header 32 provides for aligning all the yarn ends in the same plane and facilitates joining the yarns to ends already threaded into the tufting machine represented by dash line 58. Specifically, yarn 33 feeds through the flexible tubing 50 to the header 32, and through the slots 56 in the header to the tufting machine. The arrangement of the header 32 and slots 56 ensures that yarns feeding into the tufting machine 58 lie in the same plane. The header 32 includes a first plate 70 and a second plate 72 (FIG. 3). The flexible tubing 50 threads through the first plate 70 and abuts the second plate 72. The second plate 72 may be removable to facilitate attachment of the yarn to yarns already in the tufting machine.
In spite of the many advantages of the above-described compact creels, it is still generally desirable to reduce the labor required and otherwise improve the devices and processes that are used to provide yarn for use on tufting machines. Known processes for providing yarn to tufting machines and otherwise using creels generally require significant factory space and other resources. More efficient, effective, and less wasteful processes and devices for providing yarn for use on tufting machines and otherwise using yarn creels are generally desirable.